Is Anybody Still Fighting The Beis Yosef – Ari Zal K’sav Battle?

There are two types of safrus lettering: Ashkenaz and S’faradi. Ashkenaz breaks down into Beis Yosef K’sav and Ari Zal K’sav. Most people of Lithuanian descent use Beis Yosef K’sav. Most people of Eastern European descent (including all Chasidim) use Ari Zal K’sav. The Labovitch Chasidim use Ari Zal K’sav or Alter Rebbe K’sav which is a type of Ari Zal K’sav.

There are several differences between the Beis Yosef and the Ari Zal in how to make some of the letters. The most significant difference is the letter ‘tzadik’. In K’sav Beis Yosef a tzadik is made by joining a yud to a nun. In K’sav Ari Zal a tzadik is made by joining a backwards yud to a nun. The question is: How do we know that a backwards yud attached to a nun is kosher?

In the past fifteen years I have read many sources that indicate that a person who does not follow the Ari Zal’s customs in general should not use Ari Zal K’sav. Practically speaking, I have rarely heard of a rov who poskens that a person should replace his mezuzos or tefillin if they are Ari Zal K’sav and his minhag is Beis Yosef or vice versa.

One of my customers is a true Yekee (he follows the customs of the German Jewish community). Since he has tefillin that are written in Ari Zal K’sav, I thought I would let him know. He in turn asked Reb Feival Zimmerman, the Rav of Gateshead, also a Yekee. He poskened that my customer need not worry about it, and there is no reason for him to change his parshios.

Another customer told me that he received his tefillin from his father who received them from his father. After many years he had his tefillin checked and found that the shel rosh was k’sav ari and the shel yad was k’sav beis yosef. He asked Reb Dovid Feinstein what the halacha is in such a case and Reb Dovid Feinstein told him that this is a case of tartei d’sasrei (two things which contridict each other) and that they need to be replaced.

Of course, you should not rely on the story for p’sak halacha. If you should find yourself in this situtation you should consult with a rabbi.

Safrus Police Issue A Ticket

When you see your tefillin paint fading, bring them in. Is it halachah or aesthetics? Although b’dieved if tefillin are not black they may still be used, there are those (reshonim) who hold that black battim is a halacha l’moshe m’sini (a law that was passed down orally from the times of Moshe), namely Tosafos, Mordechai, Noda B’Yehuda, Vilna Gaon. If this would be your Shabbos suit would you wear it? The Shabbos Suit Testis my way of making people aware of the appearance of their tefillin. We all understand that it would be incongruous to be makpid (careful) on every detail of our dress on the one hand, and uncaring as to the appearance of  the object with which we fulfill one of our most precious mitzvos. Our crown, our jewel, that’s what we don’t have time to keep in perfect looking shape? what we are going to So be consistent and get your holy tefillin painted.

What Kind of Pen Do I Use For Touch-ups On Tefillin & Mezuzos?

My current choice of correction pen: The Rotring Rapidoliner .25. It is easy to fill up with dio, and it doesn't clog very much. I have found that it doesn't clog at all if I dab it on my tongue after each use.

I have gone through many different periods when it comes to correction pens. I guess I should start with the dilemma so you’ll understand where a bodek (examiner of tefillin and mezuzos) is coming from. The dilemma is like this: If I use a kolmus (feather pen), sooner or later I’m going to mess up an expensive set of tefillin. Then instead of earning a few dollars, I’m buying somebody a new set of parshios andthat’s not my idea of fun. If I use a Rapidograph pen filled with Dio (official safrus ink) I’m going to spend all my spear time sucking little bits of dried (bitter) ink and spitting them into the sink. If I use a Pilot G-Tec-C4 I’m hoping that there are no treif ingredients in the ink. Since it is made in some very far away nation, Pilot will not reveal the contents to me. I heard rumors that Israeli Soferim checked it out, but who knows what that really means. Now the Pilot has some real advantages. For one, they only cost a few dollars apiece, so I can afford to lose, break, and give them away to aspiring soferim. And they make a precise dot of ink exactly where you want it. You can still mess up if you don’t know what you are doing, or even if you do know what you are doing but you are in a rush, but safety-wise they are about as good as it gets. Now here is where the story gets exciting. Rabbi Daniel Melamed told me about a kind of rapidograph that although I had seen it, I had never experimented with it. It’s the Rotring Rapidoliner size .25mm. Of course two days latter I was at Pearl Paint in Peramus, NJ checking it out. Not being able to read the  Swiss or German (or whatever they were) directions, I was left to my own common sense to figure it out. Having played around with more than a few pens in my efforts to discover the perfect correction pen, I studied it, determined that it looked promising, and took a $17.91 chance. So far I must say I am impressed, but it hasn’t had too much time to get clogged up. I can tell you that it puts a nice small drop of ink exactly where I want it, and it seems to flow without too much kvetching (not like Kohiner Rapidographs that clog like every two seconds–literally–you have to shake them every few seconds that they are not in use or the ink won’t flow). Of course the biggest advantage is that I filled it with real old-fashioned dio! The first modification that I did was to put a small pocket clip on the pen side (as opposed to the top side where they are normally found). This was done to keep the pen from rolling of the table and destroying the fragile point in the fall.

Update: I’ve been using the Rotring for two weeks, and as long as I dab the pen on my tongue after each use (even if I only use it for a drop of dio), the moisture from my tongue keeps the pen from cloging. Of course if you don’t like the taste of dio (and I’m not quite sure why you wouldn’t (can you say, “Tannic acid”?) you could always dip it into some conveniently placed cup of water.

This small device is what I use to clean out the tip of the pen. It is a part from an old Kohiner Rapidograph pen. I small, thin, wire would do. Just make sure it is really thin! I tried to measure the width of this wire, and it didn't register on my digital calipers. That means it is less than .o mm!

Here is a picture of the tip of the pen being uncloged by the 'tip cleaner'. It is a bit difficult to actually get the wire into the tip, being that the tip itself is very thin, and the hole where the ink comes out is VERY thin, and the wire is very delicate. With a bit of practice, you will get it down pat.

Does A Wearhouse Need a Mezuzah and Do We Make a Brachah?

According to some Rabonim a warehouse requires a mezuzah and a brachah is made. This would be true for a store as well and even for a shed (even one that you just keep bicycles and suckah panels and so forth) that is four amosby four amos (approximately 36 sq. ft.) I just spoke to Rabbi Chaim Schabes of New Hempstead and this is what he holds. I asked him if it mattered that the Rambam says a storehouse does not require a mezuzah and therefore if we put one up it should be without a brachah. He answered that since the Shulchan Aruch requires a mezuzah on a storehouse, we make a brachah when we put it up.

Is It A Kuf Or A Lamed?

The letter in the middle of the picture is supposed to be a kuf, but is it? Cover up the leg and it appears to be a lamed. The tag on the top left was clearly made too big and it is brought down in halacha that one should be careful not to make the tag too big in order to avoid this problem. So what did I do when I found this problem? Although I could have asked a tinok (child who knows the letters but doesn’t know how to read), I decided to bring it to Rav Wosner first. There is always a risk when a child is asked. In a case like this where it looked pretty likely that a child would read this as a lamed, I wanted to see if I could get a p’sak (halachic decision by a qualified rabbi) that it was kosher without asking the child. Rav Wosner poskened that I didn’t need to ask a child because the tag was written much lighter than the rest of the writing. In the above picture the tag looks darker than it really was. In any case, I scrapped away most of the tag so that this question shouldn’t surface again in the future if somebody else is checking the tefillin.

Which Side of the Door Case 1

You walk through the front door, walk down a hall to a bedroom, enter thebedroom, go through the bedroom and enter the garage. The only way into the garage from the house is through the bedroom, or from the outside door into the garage. Which side does the mezuzah from the bedroom to the garage go on? I thought to say that it goes on the right side going into the bedroom from the garage because the garage is only a beis haotzar (storage room) while a bedroom is a real beis dira (room that one lives in). I asked Reb BenTzion Wosner and he disagreed. He said that we follow the rule that the mezuzah always goes on the right side as we go deeper into the house (derech k’neisah).

Reb Dovid Leib Greenfield

I would like to introduce you to the Rosh (Dean) of the Vaad Mishmereth STaM, Reb Dovid Leib Greenfield. He is a person that I have a lot of respect for. He has shown a tremendous depth of understanding of the seforim dealing with hilchos stam, from the gemara through the rishonim andto the  poskim. He has also fought many battles on behalf of the mitzvos of tefillin and mezuzos. He is pictured below center examining an old sefer torah.

Rabbi Greenfield gave me a great deal of excellent safrus advice on a number of occasions. Two points stick out in my mind: He told me to purchase the sefer Mishnas HaSofer by Reb Yaakov Meir Shtern. Mishnas HaSofer is a commentery on the famous sefer Kesses HaSofer by Reb Shlomo Gansfried. This sefer, he explained to me would be as valuable as my sofer’s knife. I cannot emphesise enough how correct he was. Without this sefer, it would be almost impossible to have a truly solid grasp of the intricate halachos envolved. Just to give you an idea of how well used my Mishnas Hasofer is, I included a picture of it below the picture of Rabbi Greenfield.

The other point that he made was that just because someone has smicha from the Vaad Mishmeres Stam (or from somewhere else), it doesn’t mean the the Vaad becomes responsible for mistakes that that sofer makes! It seems obvious enough, but I have met both soferim and customers that don’t fully appreciate this point. The Vaad can certify that someone knows the halachos, and appears to be a trustworthy person, but they can’t certify that every set of tefillin that he wrote is kosher. How could they? They are not inside his head. They aren’t watching every move he makes while he is writting. The Vaad makes sure that the sofer is capable of writting kosher tefillin. The sofer himself must assure the customer that he actually did write kosher tefillin (or mezuzah or sefer torah etc.).

My well worn Sefer Mishnas HaSofer

Home Remedy For Bending Tefillin Battim

cardboard platform inside plastic box

A clever customer showed me this trick for how to keep tefillin from bending on the bottom. Although some tefillin will never bend due to their great strength, other tefillin have a tendency to bend (especially in humid environments and when worn by people who perspire). Take a small piece of cardboard and cut it to the shape of the plastic tefillin box. the thickness of the cardboard should be about the same as two quarters, one on top of the other. The cardboard fills up only about half of the plastic box. Now when you put your tefillin in the box and wrap them up as shown in the picture, you have made a simple clamp. That clamping action may be enough to keep your tefillin from bending further. If your tefillin already have a substantial bend in them, send them in and I will heat press them. After they are straight, you can use this clamp to keep them that way. Any questions? As Always call me at 845-290-2546.

Megillah Written on G’vill

Megillah written on deerskin.

My good friend Mr. Lenny brought me this beautiful, rare megillah written on deerskin. In halachah, this type of parchment is called g’vill. G’vill is a leather parchment which is treated far less than regular klaf during the production process. It used to be popular in sefrei torah, although the old sefrei torah that I have seen are thinner. This, on the other hand, is much thicker, almost what leather moccasins would be made out of. Of course this makes it a very heavy material and it would not be practical to make a sefer torah out of it. Just the parchment alone for this megillah would cost about $800.00. Add in the writing and we are talking about an expensive megillah. Don’t expect to pay less than $2500 hundred for something like this. G’vill is very difficult to write on. Very few soferim would be able to handle writing a whole megillah on g’vill, myself included. I can tell you that I can just barely write one letter. When Mr. Goodman brought me the megillah, it did have one mistake, so I did in fact write one letter, and if I may say so myself, it came out pretty good. The soferim that work with g’vill are mostly Taamonim (of Yemini descent). The way they make the pen and the techniques that use to write with are completely different than the popular methods of writing.

A Look At My Students

Robert Hirsch (left) with me working on kolmosim. Robert is an accountant who is learning safrus as a hobby. He resides in Fair Lawn, NJ

Avraham Birnbaum, from Monsey, NY is learning safrus as a hobby.

Elchanon Zuckman, President and CEO of Z Electrical Contracting Inc., one of my first talmidim, and a great friend. If you need a great electrician you can find him by looking on the right sidebar under "Get it done right by the pros I trust".

Moshe Amar started out with me, and is now a well known S'faradi sofer. He is from Spain, and resides in Har Nof, Israel with his wife and children.

Reb Yosef Hammer from Monsey, a very focused talmid of the Safrus Program

Rabbi Daniel Melamed, one of my very first talmidim. He now resides in Yerusalem with his wife and children. He learns in kollel and works as a sofer. I sell tefillin and mezuzos that he writes. Contact me for more info.

Rabbi Melamed consulting with one of the Dyanim of the Badatz. They are discussing the halachos of tefillin battim.

Rabbi Gedaliah Levitin resides in Lakewood, NJ. He is working on his first megillah, and is learning how to check tefillin and mezuzos. Rabbi Levitin was zoche to finish shas this past year! Tzkeh l'mitzvos!

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